The Reproduction of Racialization and Racial Discrimination in Classrooms and its Impact on ELLs’ Social Interactions and L2 Development

Abstract:

The consequences of racialization and racial discrimination against English Language Learners (ELLs) in many schools and classrooms are reflected in their degree of socialization in the academic community which ultimately affects their English language development. Since second language acquisition is a social rather than an individual process, ELLs may not find the support they need for essential progress (in the second language they are learning) in their classrooms due to the limited opportunities for social engagement. Inferiorizing newcomer ELLs and discriminating them due to their difference of skills, orientations, and actions will also affect ELLs’ degree and forms of participation in the practices of the classroom community. Ignoring such an issue can result in the reproduction of the marginalized social status of newcomer ELLs and the reproduction of the dominating and accepted forms of cultural capital. In the light of Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory that supports the social development of language learning, the different forms of discrimination which students are subject to can have a negative impact on learners’ social and language development. Racialization decreases opportunities for healthy socialization and thus limits students’ development in their L2 and access to the classroom practices.